Jesus is the Prince of Peace, not the Prince of Pacifism.

There is nothing morally wrong with defending yourself.

In America, it’s not so bad. We have a strong gun culture that runs hand in hand with Christianity. But these third world countries… where persecution, mutilation, rape, murder and barbarism by Muslims is a way of life – we need to start a GunFundMe to ship them crates of AK’s with a bunch of unemployed Veterans looking to get back into combat.

Because headlines like this are an almost daily occurrence:

Twenty Nigerian Christians Slaughtered

And speaking of Muslims massacring Christians…

That’s nothing new. That’s why we had Crusades back when Pope’s had some actual cojones to defend Christians. (Now they sit behind the giant walls of the Vatican and lecture Americans on how we shouldn’t build our own. Oh how the mighty have fallen…)

But as Christians, it’s important to speak truth.

Biblical truth.

We need to admit who our enemies are, be they another religion, a political affiliation, or our President. If you ignore the enemy, you can’t resist the enemy. And if you don’t actively resist the enemy don’t be surprised when you lose.

In my book I created a minor character who goes by Reverend. He’s probably my favorite character and I had a lot of fun writing his dialogue.

Here’s a Reverend excerpt that ties into this post:

“I’m not surprised to see you here, but I wish you’d left when you had the chance. It’s going to get mighty ugly come tomorrow,” I told him.

“My place is here, watching over the flock that has been entrusted to me” he knocked dust off his worn book with a thump of his hand then looked at the ridges surrounding our little town. “In the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for the Lord is with me. Our Winchesters and Colts, they comfort me,” he grinned mischievously.

I laughed at the changing of the scripture. It was fitting. “What about turning the other cheek?”

He grimaced, “If you’d come to Sunday School you’d know that’s only in regard to small slights, like someone stealing a chicken. It’s not about allowing others to murder your loved ones and then offering yourself to be slaughtered as well. When you take the literal interpretation of the Bible, you cheapen God’s Word,” he took a breath. “Besides, Jesus was the Prince of Peace, not the Prince of Pacifism. Ecclesiastes three, one to eight. There is a time to kill, a time to speak, and a time for war. And not once in the Bible is a soldier, or anyone else who carries weapons told to lay them down and repent,” he caught himself and stopped preaching. “Sorry. This is one of my more popular sermons, as you can probably imagine.”

I certainly could.

He patted me on the shoulder, in an almost sympathetic manner. “I’ve spent many decades worshiping our good Lord. If he calls me home tomorrow, I can’t wait to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and do it in person,” he gave me a sideways glance. “But you… I think he still has plans for you,” whistling Amazing Grace, he walked back towards the church.

***

Speaking of my book.

It’s finished.

I’m already working on the sequel. Which is super cool, I’m really excited to be working on something new instead of rewriting over and over and over and over.

As soon as my wife finishes reading the final draft and I make some adjustments/fix errors that she finds, I’m going to start asking for anyone interested to read it and give me honest and preferably brutal feedback.

I don’t care about my feelings, I just want to create a good product.